User:Jza84/Sandbox2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manchester city centre is the central business district of the City of Manchester, in North West England. It is variously rendered as central Manchester, the City Centre,[1] or as the 2.2-square-mile (5.7 km2) Manchester Central electoral ward.[2]
| Manchester city centre | |
|---|---|
 Aerial view of Manchester city centre from the southwest in 2008 | |
  Manchester city centre Location within Greater Manchester | |
| OS grid reference | SJ839980 |
| • London | 163 mi (262 km) SE |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | MANCHESTER |
| Postcode district | M1 - M4 |
| Dialling code | 0161 |
| Police | Greater Manchester |
| Fire | Greater Manchester |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | |
Manchester city centre evolved from the civilian vicus of the Roman fort of Mamucium, on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell.[3] It has "traditionally been defined as being within the boundaries of Market Street, the River Irwell, Peter Street and Portland Street, including Piccadilly".[4] It has since been defined as those parts of the city within the Manchester Inner Ring Road,[5] or even the whole area within Manchester Inner Ring Road, thereby encompassing a part of the administratively separate City of Salford,[6] plus an area of Oxford Road to the south.[7] As of 2013, politicians propose to develop and extend the city centre northwards in an arc between Victoria and Piccadilly.[8] Political and economic ties between the city centre and neighbouring Salford and Trafford have strengthened with the shift from town and district centres to metropolitan-level centres in England.[6][9] Manchester city centre is the commercial heart of Greater Manchester,[7][10][11] and together with the adjoining parts of Salford and Trafford, is defined as Greater Manchester's "Regional Centre" for purposes of urban planning and public transport.[7][11][9][12][13]
After the Industrial Revolution, the city centre became the global centre of the cotton trade which encouraged its "splendidly imposing commercial architecture" during the Victorian era,[14] resulting in ornate buildings such as the Royal Exchange and Corn Exchange, which housed the region’s main trading floors for cotton and corn respectively.[15] The Great Northern Warehouse was the docking and transhipment centre which tied the city centre’s road, rail and canal networks together in the late-19th century.[15] The Free Trade Hall remains an icon of manufacturing-minded Victorian Liberalism in Manchester – and was the site of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819.[15] After the decline of the cotton trade and the Manchester Blitz, the city centre suffered an economic decline during the mid-20th century,[16] but the CIS Tower did rank as the tallest building in the UK when completed in 1965.[17] The 1996 Manchester bombing provided the impetus for the redevelopment of the city centre,[18] fostering an upturn in retail, leisure and urban lifestyle in Manchester.[10] The revival of the city centre in the 2000s prompted proposals and construction of skyscrapers above 150 metres (490 ft) in height, of which only the Beetham Tower has been completed as of 2013.[19]